Vaulting in the Big Leagues

So this past Wednesday I sprained my ankle.  It seemed just as bad as any other sprain I’ve had, but I started icing it hardcore with this new icing machine my school has.  I iced it about 3 times a day for about 20 minutes each time.  I also tried to walk on it without a limp almost right away.  Amazingly, I had a meet this Saturday and somehow vaulted on it.  I taped up the ankle really well, and had to adjust my steps from 53′ to a little over 47′.  The weirdest thing was that I was able to get on the same pole I got on last week (13’6 165) with a higher grip and the same amount of penetration, making the same height (13’6).  Very weird.  On a side note, I saw a result that my former teammate Eric depalo jumped 5.00 meters (16′ 4.75″?) which is amazing.

Boston Indoor Games was awesome! I’m so glad I went

Me & Jenn Stuczynski !!!!

When I agreed to do this blog, I was hoping my life would develop a few interesting things to say this year–but so far all it is is injuries!  The same one!  It’s been a year now with my ‘inflamed tendon’ that is adorably collecting fluid and making my life miserable.  Sometimes I can’t even wear shoes because of the way it rubs against it.  After the long haul with walking boots, shoe inserts, with physical therapy with no avail; I finally see a specialist on January 31.  (My 19th birthday!)  They asked me to come back for intersession before my injury really started acting up so I still came back as useless as I am, but at least I’m still getting treatment.  It’s extremely frustrating! I’m ready to get this problem completely solved instead of the temporary fix.

But last semester didn’t go too badly.  I finished with a 2.7 GPA, which isn’t too good or too bad.  Certainly room for improvement.  The funny thing that kind of kicked me in the butt was attendance!  I have to say the breakdown of my grades was pretty impressive,  until it all was all taken out by the legs by my lousy attendance.  Oops! :-X  Live and learn, I guess. Live and learn.

Classes start this Monday.  Can’t believe it’s already 2nd semester!

So, I havent written in quite some time. As a couple of coaches found out, I missed quite a few practices last semester. In fact, although we had two or three pole vault practices a week, I only made 7 total. A lot of it was that I wasn’t getting stuff done on time and was really scrambling to get stuff done and fit in some sleeping time, especially towards the end of the semester where I had 2 twelve page final papers that I should have started much earlier. Anyway, I think I’ve got myself together this term, and so far I have not missed a single practice. It seems like it paid off tonight at our first meet. I actually just got back from the meet, because the place was 3 hours away. Anyway, I jumped 13’5.25″ or maybe .75 from 4 lefts holding at 12’10″ on a 13’6 160. I had some really great attempts at 14′ on one of our mystery poles, but landed a little shallow, though I had good hip height over it. Someone’s got video of it, so I’ll try to post the jumps online. Anyway, I think something I neglected to mention technique-wise was the runup. My runup is completely different, but it was so easy to change that I didn’t even really think about it. I always knew that the run was supposed to get faster and steps shorter, but I was never forced to really adjust. However, when Lane made me change by telling me to jump my four left from 53’0 as opposed to the 46′ I used to run from. Though it was a lot of effort to get some huge steps, it now feels really natural.

hello all i have not written in a long time but here it is. so this weekend i was at reno. it rocked, it was awesome to see all those vaulters in one place. you all must come next year so that we can rival vertical assault (they had like 100 ppl). so i FINALLY turned over and got a new pr! i was pretty pumped. it was a good end to a wonderful weekend. i hope to see you all there at some point. so now i am back at school for wintersession where all i do is eat run and sleep. i am about to head off to my second practice of the day. i am getting to concentrate on vaulting alot more now so i am pretty happy about it. i hope that all of your seasons are going well!

stay healthy and happy!

remember to have fun. vaulting is supposed to be fun! negativity will weight you down and u need to go high!!

<3 erinn